CHIGGERS! ARRRGH!

TPP hates chiggers; chiggers love him. Hate is a strong emotion, and there are very few things, very few people, that can elicit this emotion. Chiggers make the grade. Now those of you who belong to the PETTM (pet'em - people for the ethical treatment of thrombulicid mites) are just a lost cause as far at TPP is concerned.  An infestation of chiggers is what happens this time of year when you mow the grass, and the ichiest bites are the dozen or so on the insteps of my feet. As a PG (plant gardening) blog, the location of the other primary infestation will not be shown or discussed. It was after all early June, and that's when chiggers appear, that is when the infest-your-body life stage appears.  Turns out tropical Australia has a similar critter that produces "scrub itch". They liked TPP too.  Turns out they like other people even more and at least one biologist seeking plants that produce predatory mite domatia gathered an even bigger population of chiggers than anyone has ever seen before.  His body looked like it was covered with red freckles, that itch. Damn, it was hard to even look at.  So every year it's the same; TPP has to learn an initial lesson.  Turns out Ms. Phactor had forgotten her lessons too.  Wonder about all those neighbors who visited our yard for a picnic?